Patriots’ practice is canceled after positive virus test
after he skipped the 2018 season amid a contract dispute. Bell signed a four-year, $52.5 million deal with $35 million guaranteed with the New York Jets, but he never quite meshed with coach Adam Gase, and he was released this week after they failed to find any suitable trade partners.
Bell was reportedly considering three teams before settling on Kansas City, where he will back up Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
The rookie out of LSU, who was the Chiefs’ first-round pick in this year’s draft, raised eyebrows by running for 138 yards with touchdowns on the ground and through the air in his debut against Houston. But Edwards-Helaire had just 38 yards rushing the following week, 64 yards rushing each of the next two and 40 yards rushing last Sunday against the Raiders — when the Chiefs lost 4032 to end their franchise-record 13-game winning streak.
“We drafted Clyde for a reason. Clyde is doing a heck of a job,” Bieniemy said. “The rest of that” — referring again to Bell — “I’m going to let Coach Reid address that. He’s the head coach for a reason and Brett Veach is the general manager for a reason. Once they address that, I’ll make sure I jump in. But Clyde is doing a heck of a job.”
He also can’t do it alone, and that’s another reason the Chiefs signed Bell. They thought they would have Damien Williams to provide a 1-2 punch, but he opted out due to COVID-19. That left only Darrel Williams, who has carried 11 times for 35 yards, and Darwin Thompson, who has six carries for 32 yards, to give Edwards-Helaire a break in the backfield.
Edwards-Helaire has run 81 times for 344 yards. The rest of the team, which includes quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the wide receivers the Chiefs use on jet sweeps, have combined for just 51 carries and 213 yards.
So while Bieniemy might be unwilling to say it, the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator is: “I’m sure our offensive guys will be glad to have him,” Spagnuolo said.
From New England to Atlanta to Indianapolis, the focus was not on football on Friday. It was on, not surprisingly, coronavirus tests.
The Patriots canceled practice Friday after a member of the organization tested positive for COVID-19, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team and the NFL did not announce the positive test, did not reveal if it involved a player or a coach.
With the Colts, there were four positive tests that, when retested, came up negative. The Falcons returned to their facility one day after abandoning it when they had a second positive.
New England (2-2) already twice had the original Week 5 matchup against Denver postponed following four positive coronavirus tests by players, including quarterback Cam Newton and cornerback Stephon Gilmore. The game is scheduled for Sunday in Foxborough, Massachusetts, but now could be in jeopardy.
“I don’t really know the answer to that,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said when asked about finally playing the Patriots. “We’re under the assumption and understanding that this game’s going to go off on time. And anything that happens otherwise will happen when it happens.”
Newton and Gilmore, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, returned to practice this week for the first time since testing positive for the coronavirus. Newton missed New England’s loss at Kansas City on Oct. 5 after his Oct. 2 positive test. He was activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday. Gilmore was activated from the list Thursday, following his Oct. 7 positive test. Practice squad player Bill Murray also returned from the COVID list Thursday.
Defensive tackle Byron Cowart was the only Patriots player currently still on the list after testing positive on Oct. 11.
The Broncos (1-3) haven’t played since Oct. 1. So if they play Sunday, they’ll have had 16 days between games, one day longer than Tennessee’s layoff before the Titans beat Buffalo on Tuesday night following the NFL’s first COVID-19 outbreak, which affected two dozen members of the organization. Denver’s layoff is the longest in the league since 2001, when the NFL postponed all games the weekend following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Three teams — Saints, Steelers, Buccaneers — had byes when play resumed a week later, so they all had 20 days between games that year.
Of those three, only the Steelers won in their return to action.
Indianapolis closed its practice facility, then the four retests came back negative and the building reopened.
Coach Frank Reich did not identify who had the false positives but acknowledged if it wasn’t a player, it was someone who worked closely with the players. He did say the four were kept out of the facility.
Reich actually had started making contingency plans to play the Bengals on Monday or Tuesday, and also rearranged Friday’s schedule. The install meetings were conducted virtually and after the second set of results came back, the Colts went through a lighter-than-normal practice at team headquarters wearing masks.
“It just made sense that we could jog through, get all the looks we needed to get, get our bodies going a little bit, get the heart rate going a little bit but not going full speed,” Reich said. “It would have had to been masks under the helmet, so I just felt like it was the right thing to do -- not go full speed with the mask under the helmet.”
The Browns, who played the Colts on Sunday, had zero positive tests Friday morning and their building is open. The negatives included one for star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was ill and sent home Thursday and not allowed to practice Friday.
Atlanta resumed in-person work under more stringent safety measures.
“Just with the intensive regulations, the mask protocol is in high effect,” interim head coach Raheem Morris said. “We have to do some of those different type of deals. Masks on the field, player separation on the field. The in-person meetings only in two areas: The team meeting room and the indoor facility. All of those things we had to implement.”
The Falcons play Sunday Minnesota.
Rookie defensive tackle Marlon Davidson was placed on the COVID-19/reserve list Tuesday and a second person, who is not a player, subsequently tested positive. at